1.l Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for call handling, and more particularly to for prioritizing contacts.
2.l Discussion of Background Art
Automated call handling systems, such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-speech (TTS) software are increasingly important tools for providing information and services to contacts in a more cost efficient manner. IVR systems are typically hosted by call centers that enable contacts to interact with corporate databases and services over a telephone using a combination of voice utterances and telephone button presses. IVR systems are particularly cost effective when a large number of contacts require data or services that are very similar in nature, such as banking account checking, ticket reservations, etc., and thus can be handled in an automated manner often providing a substantial cost savings due to a need for fewer human operators.
Many call centers enable contacts to leave a message so that an agent, operator or customer representative can get back to the contact after analyzing the message and finding the most suitable solution. These messages are first placed in a queue so that when a next operator becomes available, the operator can select a message to respond to.
The criterion for selecting which message should be responded to first is important for the call center. Some commonly used criteria include: First In-First Out (FIFO) whereby contacts are responded to in the order the call center received their message; geographically influenced selection, which takes into consideration the caller's time zone and operators available in that time zone; permitting the contact to self prioritize their message based on some predefined criteria, such as loss of life, mission critical, major business problem, minor business problem, non critical issue; permitting the operator to select which message to answer next after listening to many if not most of the messages in the queue; and so on.
Each of the above techniques, however, often yields less than optimal selection results. For instance, blind selection techniques like first-in-first-out (FIFO) typically leave some important calls and contacts on-hold for a long time while other less critical calls are responded to first; contact-driven techniques (i.e. self prioritization) often results in a misleading message priority determination since many contacts tend to think that their problem is the most urgent; and operator selection techniques tend to be inefficient and time consuming.
In response to the concerns discussed above, what is needed is a system and method for prioritizing messages that overcomes the problems of the prior art.